Fire-escape



2 SheetsSheet 1.

"(No Model.)

G. NESS COVERT.

FIRE ESCAPE.

Patented Dec. 23', 1884.-

NO. 309,527.v

WWII E8853:

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G. VAN NESS COVERT, OF FARMER VILLAGE, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO DANIEL L. HAMILL, OF TROY, NEXV YORK.

FIRE-ESCAPE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 309,527, dated December 23, 1884.

Application filed May 6, 188 (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern;

- Be it known that I, G. VAN NEss COVERT, of Farmer Village, Seneca county, State of New York, have invented a new and useful 5 Improvement in Fire-Escapes, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to that class of fire-escapes which are portable and that form no part of the building in which they are used, they 1 being made to be hung up in a room or to be earried by travelers in a trunk.

My invention consists, as will be more fully detailed hereinafter in connection with its illustration, in the combination of a roller hav- 1 ing a spool form that is adapted to have a rope wound thereon, one end of said rope being attached to the roller and the other end provided with a hook to connect the device, a recess or groove in revolution on said roller at each end outside of that part in which the rope is wound, friction-straps in said recesses or grooves, a

body-strap provided with arm straps, and which body-strap at each end is attached to one of said frictioirstraps, and holder-straps on each end of the roller outside of the friction-straps, said holder-straps being provided with handles for the suspended person to take hold of to raise the weight of the body from off the friction-straps, so that a descent may be made by the unwinding of the rope from'ol't' the roller.

Accompanying this specification, to form a part of it, there are two plates of drawings, containing three figures illustrating my in ven- 3 5 tion, with the same designation of its parts by letter reference used in all of them.

Of these illustrations, Figure 1 showsa per spective of the apparatus containing my in vention. Fig. 2 shows a longitudinal vertical 0 section taken on the line a m of Fig. 1. Fig.

3 shows a cross vertical section taken on the line 00 x of Fig. 1, said illustration being taken through one of the recesses or grooves and the friction-belt which engages therewith.

The several parts of the device are designated by letter reference and their function described as follows: The letter R designates a roller, 1n ade of wood or other equally light material, and constructed with the flanges F F, arranged at each end of the spool-for1n receptacle B, have wound thereon a rope, which is attached to the roller and adapted to 0, one end of at a, and the other end is provided with a hook, H, for attachment to the inside of the window-sill of a room or any other suitable place of connection. The letter S indicates a groove or recess made to encircle the roller the spool-flanges F, a frictionstrap arranged in ca recesses or grooves. The circu at each end outside of and the letters D indicate ch of the said inference of the said grooves or recesses is made to be enough greater than the circumferenc part of the roller to have the e of the spool friction of the straps D and to resist the revolution of the roller and the unwinding of th e rope from off the spool part 01' the roller when a weight is suspended from the friction-straps.

The letter E indicates a bodystrap, each end of which is attached to one of the friction- 7o straps D by hooks, and this body-strap is provided with arm-straps A, through which the arms of the person of the device are passed.

making a descent by means The letters N indicate holder-straps arranged in the extreme end of the roller, and made to encircle the latter each within an groove, 9. with a handle, 71, and by means cr-straps and handles the encircling These holder-straps are each made of whichhold person suspended by the body and arm straps may raise the weight of the body from off the friction-straps, so as to permit a descent to be made.

The device thus illustrated and described is used in the following manner being connected with a window-sill or a bed- The hook ll. 8

stead within the room from which a descent is to bemadc, bypassing straps A A so that the back of the person desiring to scout, the body may be swung the arms through the strap E is across the make the de- 9O from out the window, and, its weight coming upon the friction-straps D, will not descend,

pended. To make the descent,

but remain susthe person from oil the friction-straps D gagement with the surfaces of when the roller will turn and th allowing the body to descend.

sired to arrest the descent by releasing the hold upon the holder-straps, the weight of the body is again thrown onto the friction-straps, and this stops the rotation of the roller and the unwinding of the rope. Thus the descent of a person by means of the device can be regulated without taking hold of the rope.

While I have shown a body-strap made-with arm-straps, I do not limit my invention to the use of one so made, as the other factors would perform the same office whether the form of strap shown was used or any form of strap by which the weight of the body was suspended from' the friction-straps was employed.

The friction-straps D, I prefer to make of leather, each of them having a broad bearingsurface within the recesses in which they are placed, with the diameter of the roller thereat greater than that part of the roller on which the rope is wound at the spool part.

The holders N and their handles may be made of either metal or leather.

Having thus described my invention, what I than at the spool part, with the encircling groove 9 at each end of the roller, the frictionstraps D within said recesses S, the holderstraps N, made with handles h, said holderstraps arranged Within the grooves g, the bodystrap E at each of its ends attached to one of the friction-straps, and the rope 0, one end attached to the roller, and 'at the other end provided with the hook II, said parts being at one end to said roller, and at the other end provided with the hook H, the said parts being constructed and arranged tooperate substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

Signed at Farmer Village, April 24, 1884, in the presence of the two witnesses whose names are hereto written.

G. VAN NESS COVERT.

Witnesses: I

ERNEST BL-AUVELT, D. 0. WHEELER. 

